Quebec Language Police Harassing Popular Italian Restaurant

[no color]

CJAD News
What does pasta mean?

Posted By: Laura Casellalcasella@astral.com·2/20/2013 7:15:00 AM


One of Montreal's hip restaurants on St. Laurent Boulevard has caught the eye of the language police.

Buonanotte was paid a visit recently by the people at the Office Quebecois de la langue francaise.

They followed up with a written complaint about a couple of words on the Italian restaurant's menu. One being "pasta", the other "bottiglia" to indicate its wine selection by the bottle.

It seems these words are violations to Bill 101 because there are no French words describing what they mean.

Read more: CJAD 800

Once again, we are a laughing stock, and rightfully so. Has anyone, and I mean anyone ever heard of not being able to use Italian on a menu in an Italian restaurant.

After reading the entire article, it appears as though lawyers are involved in this. Good move on the owners part, as the OLF has no case here. As a former business owner, I am well aware of the discriminatory langauge laws as they apply to businesses. Generally, two thirds of any advertisement has to be in French, the rest in any other language. Business owners have several options when advertising in languages other than French. Here are a few:
1. They can have English signs for every French sign provided that the French sign is twice as big.
2. They can have English and French signs of the same size provided that there are two French signs for each English sign.
3. Two thirds of the advertisement is done in French only and one third of the advertisement in English only.
4. Unilingual English signs that are registered trademarks or brand names are displayed.

Of course English above can be replaced by any other language.

If I were the lawyer here, I'd focus on 3. above. If two thirds of the menu is indeed in French, then case dismissed.

 

[Corduroy]

People go to Italian restaurants for an authentic Italian dining experience, but they go to Quebec for authentic language oppression. We need to balance the two.

 

[Johnnny]

This is kinda dumb on the part of the Language Police, not to mention the idea of a Language Police isnt that bright of an idea either.....

Mabye business's should just move out of Quebec.... Pretty soon the "language Police" will have vehicles with sound instruments monitroing the whole city making sure no one speaks non-french at home.....

 

[relic]

Where else in the world,are the people that are dedicated to distroying the country,sponsored by that country ? Those are the folks kenny should have deported wha?

 

[lone wolf]

No wonder there are so many loony toon Quebec drivers.... All the speedometers are in Arabic script

 

[Johnnny]

The people of Quebec have become scared. Scared of losing their language, and in their fear they have turned to a provincial government that is totalitarian... A government the people of Quebec are content to allow to change and control the aspects of their lives... Mabye im going overboard

 

[WLDB]

The fact that a supposedly free country has a "language police" is rather insane. Language evolves. It cant be policed.

 

[DaSleeper]

We are the Borg - YouTube

 

[WLDB]

The people of Quebec have become scared. Scared of losing their language, and in their fear they have turned to a provincial government that is totalitarian... A government the people of Quebec are content to allow to change and control the aspects of their lives... Mabye im going overboard

Not quite. A good chunk of their history as a province has involved quasi-totalitarian government. The Church dominated nearly everything up until the quiet revolution and they had a pretty strong alliance with Duplessis who was a bit of a fascist. They traded one form of oppression for another.

 

[Machjo]

The people of Quebec have become scared. Scared of losing their language, and in their fear they have turned to a provincial government that is totalitarian... A government the people of Quebec are content to allow to change and control the aspects of their lives... Mabye im going overboard

OK, it's not a totalitarian province, and still democratic, though I've met some with a certain mob-mentality (i.e. the majority has the right to do what it wants because that's democracy). Their language policy itself is similar to that of Nazi germany's, but still a very democratic province otherwise.

But the gist of your argument is correct. they're scared and so reacting on impulse rather than rational minds.

 

[no color]

The Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL — A guy (or a woman) walks into an Italian restaurant in Montreal, sees the names of the dishes on the menu in Italian — and calls the cops.

If that reads like the setup to a joke, it is — one that may get a laugh elsewhere, but not here in Quebec.

Here’s how the rest of it goes:

The cops in question were the so-called language police from the Quebec language-law enforcement agency, the Office québécois de la langue française.

One of the Office’s trained professionals took the complaint seriously enough to make a visit of inspection to the restaurant, Buonanotte. That was followed up by a letter ordering French equivalents to be added to the names of the dishes. Of Italian dishes. On the menu of an Italian restaurant. In supposedly sophisticated Montreal.

Read more: Don Macpherson: Did you hear the one about the Italian menu?

 

[CDNBear]

I remember being embarrassed by a waiter at the Jade Lake Garden Dim Sum Palace when I couldn't understand what the dumpling on his cart was.

So I began learning how to order Dim Sum and other Chinese foods in Mandarin.

If you get you balls in a knot because you can't figure out what's on the fancy Italian restaurants menu, there's little hope for you, take the cowards way out.

 

[Niflmir]

So when I open a restaurant called "Gibberish" or "Charabia" and the entire menu is filled with such delights as

• qwerty
• asdfg
• yuiop
• hjkl

am I supposed to translate it into French?

 

[CDNBear]

So when I open a restaurant called "Gibberish" or "Charabia" and the entire menu is filled with such delights as

• qwerty
• asdfg
• yuiop
• hjkl

am I supposed to translate it into French?

In a word, yes.

 

[Niflmir]

In a word, yes.

How am I supposed to do that? Buy a French-Canadian keyboard and hit the same key strokes? So I get awerty instead of qwerty? That's a totally different recipe!

That is the real strength of the English language: no language police. Who can tell me I am wrong?

 

[BruSan]

In a word, yes.

They don't care; it's the moronic, retarded, idiotic thought that counts!

 

[taxslave]

Where else in the world,are the people that are dedicated to distroying the country,sponsored by that country ? Those are the folks kenny should have deported wha?

Unfortunately we cannot deport people that are born here.

The fact that a supposedly free country has a "language police" is rather insane. Language evolves. It cant be policed.

Except in Quebec.

 

[CDNBear]

Who can tell me I am wrong?

The Quebecois have found someone.

They don't care; it's the moronic, retarded, idiotic thought that counts!

Pretty much.

 

[shadowshiv]

So when I open a restaurant called "Gibberish" or "Charabia" and the entire menu is filled with such delights as

• qwerty
• asdfg
• yuiop
• hjkl

am I supposed to translate it into French?

Hey! Those are spammers I've banned from here. Gibberish indeed!

 

[no color]

Looks like the tongue troopers (language police) are backing down on this. As I noted earlier, we are clearly a laughing stock.

Quebec tongue troopers backtrack on Buonanotte’s menu
L’Office québécois de la langue française acknowledges ‘an excess of zeal’ against high-profile Montreal eatery

By THE GAZETTE

MONTREAL — Let pasta be pasta — and not pâtes alimentaires, Quebec’s language watchdog has let it be known, after controversy boiled over when it tried to muscle more French onto the largely French-language menu at a high-profile Italian restaurant in Montreal.

In a three-paragraph statement issued Wednesday night, L’Office québécois de la langue française tried to turn down the heat generated by its move against the Buonanotte on St. Laurent Blvd., just north of Sherbrooke St. W.

It acknowledged having displayed “an excess of zeal.”

One of its tongue troopers issued Buonanotte an official letter — following up on an inspector’s visit after the receipt of what L’Office called “a complaint in good and due form deposited by a citizen.”

The letter from the language police ordered that French-language equivalents be added to the names shown on its menu in the language of Michelangelo, Italian terms such as antipasti, pizza, carne, contorni and pesce along with the more pedestrian pasta. All the menu items are described in French, without any use of English. Tagliata di Manzo, for instance, is fully described in French only including such ingredients as “purée de courge musquée,” or butternut squash.

The menu move by L’Office roiled through social media.

The firestorm of spicy comment was peppered largely with sarcasm and ridicule — notably using the Twitter hashtag #pastagate.

An anonymous Twitter account baptized @Quebec Pasta launched such saucy sallies as “Pasta la Vista PQ!”

“Penne arrabbiata will now be called Pâtes en Tabarnak,” tweeted Pat Riccio.

L’Office said in the statement that it has begun a review of the situation and “will consider the particularities of the restaurant, notably taking into account the exception (under language law) relating to foreign specialties, foreseen under the statute.”

Read more: Quebec tongue troopers backtrack on Buonanotte